Madera Union High School - Blue and White Yearbook (Madera, CA)

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HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL. Ohe Chateau on Quartz Wountain. +. ROBABLY most people who live in the vicinity of Madera, have noticed in the evening a sudden gleam of light, high up in thé mountains of this county, and have exclaimed, ‘‘A fire inthe mountains!’’ They see the sunset rays reflected down to them from the This building is located on the highest oint of land within a radius of forty miles from Madera, and commands a view of all the surrounding hills, and even the plains below. windows of the Quartz Mountain chateau. It was built about fifteen years ago by a French company, who vere persuaded that an immense fortune lay buried on the suminit, and was in- tended to be th “ome of the stperintendent. Ata great capense’ a hotel,’ several boarding houses and stores, and a sixt’ stamp mill were for the futility gold-laden erected by the company. Alas, No ore Quartz Mountain was crushed in the giant arms of the mill, and it stands mounta’1 side. After all begin, 1 was found that water power could only of humen hopes! from deserted upon the was in readiness to be pro ured by the greatest labor, and a vast outlay of money, and so Quartz Mountain was abandoned. The superintendent lived in the chateau but eight days. ‘faithful servant was smothered to death in a c'ose room, and the superintendent immédiate’ The buil eft the house and never returned. ig is deserted now, save by the oc- sasional vig Sr and the guardians. It is a two- story building, with about a dozen rooms, all hard finished’ and is well preserved to this day. There is alSo an observatory which was not finished like the window in Aladdin’s palace. From: the upper windows the plains are visible onaclear'day. Often a pigmy train can be seen crawling slowly on, and the San Joaquin river lies like a Silver thread across the level’valley. It is said that electricity some day will be the power t, at will start the sixty stamps to moving and that‘the doors of the chateau will again be thrown open. Then with sounds of life around it.ana@ the hills resounding with the noise of labor, the Quartz Mountain chateau will forget the peice it now has, ‘‘standing there with face toward the sun’’ and reflecting the sunset glow. Critical Comments on Our Contemporaries. ne +) ECAUSE of the failure of our last busi- 4 ness manager to perform his official duty, A p very few copies of our ANNUAL were sent out and in consequence we have but a short list of exchanges. To those editors who, notwithstanding this, sent us.their papers, we are sincerely grateful, and extend to them our best wishes for their future success. We are yet in our infancy as a paper, and therefore do not consider ourselves competent to judge of the merits or demerits of our exchanges; but we feel that a few friendly criticisms are not amiss, especially when we are all subject to the same attacks. In many of our papers we find a great number of jokes and short articles, taken from other ex- changes. When one has read the same thing in at least a half dozen papers, it becomes father stale, and we would recommend less copied and more original jokes. We would suggest that advertisements be kept separate from the reading matter, unless our ex- changes intend to intersperse advertisements with reading matter. It would be a great improvement if some of our papers. would publish a table of contents. ‘The Skirmisher,’’ a lively and progressive paper from San Mateo, has regularly appeared on the editor’s desk. Notwithstanding its great number of articles on athletics we credit it as being one of the most original papers which We especially commend its absence of articles with an Ex. have come under our notice. suf- fixed. ‘The Tyro,”’ oldest exchanges, is a vigorous paper; its cover, of San Bernardino, one of our as well as what is between it, being very attrac- tive and well prepared. It always contains a good story. The Fresno ‘‘Owl,’’ our nearest neighbor, is replete with wit and humor, but by no means lacking in the more substantial qualities neces- sary to success. Irving ‘‘Echoes’’ has a very artistic cover. The whole piece shows good taste and much preparation.

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HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL. At the present petroleum gas is used with most satisfactory results. ployed is nearly the same as that used in the The mechanism em- gasoline engine, and the two are used in connec- tion with great success. Simplicity and power of machinery are combined in this case with great safety and econdOmy in operation, making One difficulty, This is obviated to a the most practical power known. however, is that of noise. great extent by the use of a ‘“‘muffler’’ into which the exhaust is directed and most of the danger of frightening horses on the highway is overcome. This defect will be of no consequence whatsoever in the near future when no horses will be met on the common road and autos can vie with each other ad libitum, both in respect to speed and noise. Every manufacturer profits by the ex- perience of others and at present the construc- art. Automobiles are made at a cost of from $800 to tion of these machines has become an as high as $4,500. Some very expensive racers M. Jenatzy holds the automobile kilometer record of sixty- are built in France. One owned by five miles per hour. ‘These machines are mere playthings to amuse ‘‘Sports’’ and fulfill no use- ful purpose. Many mobiles are running in California and numerous others are being made. Madera is not behind the times in this respect. The Hely Bros. have recently made a successful automobile. It is propelled by a gasoline and petroleum engine of 490 revolutions per minute. A sprocket chain connects the main shaft to the rear axle on which is a ‘‘compensating gear.”’ This device enables the driver, paradoxical as it seems, when going forward to stop, reverse and run backwards, or in turning around, by merely pressing a lever, run but one of the rear mp: This wonderful little gear has solved the greatest prob- wheels, while the other remains standing. lem in the construction of horseless carriages. It has been for several years in almost universal use. The wheels are of wooden hub, spokes and felloes, on which a steel rim is shrunk. ‘The 3% inch pneumatic tires are cemented on these rims, and then inflated. as iron the resiliency of the tires is a highly im- Although seemingly as hard portant consideration. The air and gas mixture is regulated at will by simply turning a supply lever. Thus the speed is at the driver’s com- mand—there is practically no limit to the speed except that which reughness of the roads offers. The average road rate is about fifteen miles per hour. When J am a Widdler, F I were a Middler, life would seem worth living. But of all things despisable, the scold word very Junio: dlers Ye: Theil Junie 5 P. M., while the three happy ° ping down the stairs, hand in o’clock. Teachers look very cross at us are fun in school. When we will be different. We can study to. We shall get out early and h smiling at us all day long. We will come to school each m faces washed and our hair com that the teacher won't dare to sen hall to have some one comb it for We will be respected by the c We can snub them as the last ck snubbed us. Mr. T. ink or make a racket. will not reprimand us He will n any way and we shall all be as ha birds that sing in the springtime. some of us feel like attempting st nice it will be when I am a Midd One thing only makes us sad. ing boy Senior of the class of r¢ with us. Alas! how we shall mis vice and fatherly counsel. H« very grateful for his kindness « year.

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HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL. We wonder if the Benicia ‘‘Reporter’’ has no exchanges, as we are unable to find any ex- change column. The San Diego ‘‘Russ’’ is a thriving paper. Its contents show editor. ‘The Lowell’’ of vantageously substitute a short story for each number of its continued stories. Other exchanges which we have received, but the hand of an energetic San Francisco might ad- which neither space nor time permit us to men- tion, are: ‘““Adjutant,”’ Mt. emy. Tamalpais Military Acad- ‘““Argus,”? Tulare. ‘‘Aspirant,’’ Mission High, San Francisco. ‘‘Aurora,’’ Occidental College, Los Angeles. ‘ Cogswell Petit Courrier,’’ San Francisco. ‘Dictum Est,’’ Red Bluffs. “Girls High School,’’ San Francisco. ‘“Janus,’’ Hanford. ‘‘Lompoc Journal,’’ Lompoc. “Naughty Two,’”’ Citrus Union High School. ‘‘Olla Podrida,’’ Berkeley. “Oracle,’’ Oakdale. ‘Sea Urchin,’’ Pacific Grove. Santa Clara. World,” ‘Tocsin,”’ “Workaday College Park. University of Pacific, Meditations. SUPPOSE all Alumni are expected to give Just a word or two as a clue to their wanderings, their last chirp in the ANNUAL. and a reminder that they have not entirely forgotten their last year’s nest. It may be they would impart some sage advice to the new ‘‘fledglings ’ about to stretch their wings and fly over that well worn awful ; “a so solemn and or, perhaps, they could lure them on sea of life,’’ through the trials of commencement by relating that will that dread ‘““Morn on the mountain, the joys follow night. Like e summer bird, Lifts up her purple wing,”’ and we are free. We feel all the delights of in- terminable vacation ; those days of dreamy idle- ness when the birds sing and the flowers bloom ; evenings of quiet repose and pleasant reading, but ‘‘O, it is not always May!”’ time is sure to end, even if there are and vacation ‘‘no lessons to get.” Each must have some aim in life, some duties to perform, and pleasure also has its place. ‘Life is a stage whereon each man must play a ” part,’’ and it depends upon our own efforts how far we succeed. Qur paths are given to us and our lives are what we make them. Perhaps we did not fully realize the importance of our school work and the lasting influence it will have upon our future career, or fitly rever- ence those tedious books which we wished to thump sometimes. Yet there can hardly be one who does not leave with some regrets. What a curious feeling it is to come across a pile of dusty school books lying away neglected and forlorn. Is there triumph or pity in the sight? ‘‘Mighty Ceesar, dost thou lie so low ?”’ You turn the familiar leaves and perhaps find some tell-tale scrawl. Here lies a battered Virgil. “drma virumgue cano Trotae qui primus ab There is some pleasure in the sound, and No. That time has passed and something else must We changing tides and shifting winds. Ones an a sadness, too. Would we go back again ? take its place. have entered a scene of Each year depths and foreign lands. Let us and whether our lot be stormy or calm, let us say day, bears us into new steer clear of dangerous rocks, with ‘‘We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust.’’ confidence, as on our graduation Gnitertained a Stow Gwo WMiddler Girls Rerkeley Professor. N a nice afternoon in March, + I) two Middler girls were seated in the jM library studying unusually hard, for awaiting in the next room was one of those sunny dreaded English professors. Rap-a-tap-tap, a knock Rousing themselves from their thoughtful study, came at the door. banishing the frowns from their clouded brows, To their great ) they cheerily called, ‘‘Come in.’ surprise upon looking up, they discovered a